Voyage: Part II
by xion8585
Summary: The kidnapping of one of their own leads to the reuinion of many and an adventure into the unexpected. Please r&r.
1. Default Chapter

**Voyage Part II**

Disclaimer: If you're reading this, then you know that this is a work of fiction. Any lawsuits filed against me will be ignored. I don't own anything in the story but the plot.

Warning: If you haven't found Part 1 of this story, it's because I haven't posted it yet. I wanted to try something different. You see, this story will be separated into 3 parts, and I've decided that I want to release this part first, and then slowly begin to release Part 1. Hope you like the story coming this way, if you don't please tell me in your reviews. So on to the story.

Despite everyone's best efforts, Andros found himself staring moodily out to space, sitting on the bridge of the Astromega Ship. Ashley would probably be telling him off for spending so much time by himself, but she wasn't here right now. It wasn't that he didn't want to socialize; it was that he felt that he had nothing in common with anyone.

They'd been traveling to Eltar for about 2 weeks, and had at least another week to go. He had seen the wonder in the eyes of the younger generations of rangers fade, leaving in its wake an aura of nearly absolute boredom.

After discovering that their newly reacquired morphers didn't work, both Billy and Trini were currently working on a solution as to how to activate them. Cam, on the other hand, appeared to be studying the systems that allowed DECA to run. All 3 techies appeared to be in their elements, and seemed quite content at the moment. Tori, Kira, Conner, Zack, and Jason were on the simulator deck, having spent most of the flight sparring. Originally Hayley had been with Billy and Trini, but had disappeared after a while. The only one whose moods were at least as indiscernible as his was the one ranger that he could relate to the most, Tommy. While Andros was sitting on the bridge, Tommy was standing on the viewing deck just staring into the darkness of space. From what he had gathered of this mission, this was very personal to Tommy. Kimberly was probably the sole reason that Tommy could even be considered the greatest ranger ever. Even he could see the strong front that Tommy was displaying as the front that it was.

After a while he saw everyone file out of the simulator deck, and as he looked at the clock set on the bridge he realized that it was getting awfully close to dinner, and it would be his and Tommy's turn to cook. He quickly jumped to his feet and hurried to the galley. Originally there had been a machine, which would have created the meals, but during the construction of this new Astromega Ship, the workers had decided that it would be too expensive to put another one in, so now they were stuck doing things the old fashioned way. Andros arrived in the galley, and was surprised to find Tommy already there chopping carrots. Working together, Tommy and Andros made a stew and were just beginning to serve it as everybody began to file in.

Dinner was an amusing one as nearly everyone managed to pick on Conner. Even Andros couldn't resist a guarded laugh at the expense of the new red ranger. They were making fun of how Kira had managed to beat him during an earlier spar. Only 2 people spared Conner; Tommy, who spent most of the meal silently eating, and surprisingly enough, Kira herself, who spent most of the time defending him, until Zack asked Conner why he let his girlfriend argue for him. Both Kira and Conner turned extremely red at the question. Kira studiously started to pick her food, while Conner excused himself from the table and walked away. Andros quickly changed the subject by inquiring about the status of the morphers, but he did manage to catch the concerned glance in the direction that Conner had walked off in. The rest of the meal was uncomfortably quiet.

After everyone had finished, he asked Hayley to cover the dishes for him as he went in search of Conner. It took him a while, but he managed to find him staring moodily out the bridge, in the seat that he, himself had vacated not too long ago. When Conner finally noticed his presence, he quickly vacated the chair, all the while apologizing profusely. Andros held out his hand in an effort to stop Conner's rambling apology. "Conner," Andros said, "it's okay, I just wanted to talk to you."

Both men stared out to space, wondering which of them would be the one to start the conversation. It quickly became apparent that it would be up to Andros to begin. Interestingly enough though, it was Conner that started. "You're going to ask me if I like her, aren't you?" Conner asked. Andros nodded. Conner appeared to consider whether or not telling Andros would help his situation, as it dawned on Andros how uncomfortable he was probably making Conner feel. "Look, it's obvious that you do like her, probably even to her, I'm just not sure why you haven't told her yet." Andros got up to leave, but Conner grabbed his arm before he could get far. Conner let out a long sigh, as he decided to tell him.

"It's not as easy as you think it is." Conner began. "She means a lot to me, there are nights where I don't even sleep because I have an image of that girl constantly running through my mind. I find myself laying in bed just thinking of the little things she does, how she eats, how she laughs, even how she breaths. I constantly have to keep my guard up because I'm afraid that if I don't I could ruin my relationship with the one person I care for the most." Conner took a deep breath to try to calm himself down. "And she can never know," he said sadly. "Why?" Andros asked. Conner sighed in frustration "because she can never love me the way that she loves Trent Fernandez" he said subdued. "No matter how much I want to tell her how I feel; I know I can't because Trent will always be her first priority.

Andros stood rooted to the spot, not knowing what to say. His one and only experience with love had ended in a disaster, so Andros had no clue on how to advise the young man that stood in front of him. Just as he was about to speak, Kira revealed her presence by clearing her throat. "Conner?" she asked. "Did you really mean all of those things?" Conner looked like he was about to deny them, but with a nervous gulp nodded his head instead. "Wow," Kira said. "I don't know what to say Conner, but I think you're right. We're just way to differ…"

Kira was suddenly cut off by the alarms, which had begun to sound throughout the ship. Conner looked about in confusion, then looked to Andros for answers. From the moment the alarms sounded, Andros knew what was happening, although he really hoped that he was mistaken. Andros went over to one of the monitors and begun studying the readings closely. After a moment, he nodded his head grimly as he confirmed his fears. Both Conner and Kira turned to Andros for instructions, not knowing the problem, but willing to follow whatever orders that he would give. In that moment of chaos, Andros smiled as he saw that the spirit of the power rangers still lived on, even 10 years after its birth.

"Make sure everyone is accounted for, and tell them to come to the bridge." Both teens immediately sprinted off the bridge in search of their fellow ranger's. Once more Andros looked at the monitor and shook his head. An evil presence had been detected onboard, he sincerely hoped it wouldn't come to blows, but he knew that it would eventually. Andros allowed himself to marvel at the courage that he had witnessed then shook off the nostalgic feeling as he readied himself for battle.

Just as Conner was about to head to the bridge he heard arguing emanating from the engine room. Curiously Conner rounded the corner and found himself looking at trouble. Kira was being held captive by what appeared to be 2 giant spiders and a masked woman with brown hair wearing black armor. Kira was struggling to break the hold of her captors, but then appeared to give up. Suddenly she spit on the woman. The woman appeared to stare intently at Kira. Out of nowhere her hand shot out landing a resounding slap, which would send Kira reeling, and Conner into a blinding rage. He didn't even hear the woman say "Master, our mission is accomplished, get us out of here." A column of red light surrounded the four of them as they prepared to leave the ship. Conner used his dino speed and pushed Kira out of the column, and in a flash of red light they disappeared. Kira watched in shock as Conner, the woman, and the 2 spiders disappeared. Then her whole world exploded.


	2. Chapter II

**Voyage: Part II, Chapter II**

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, only the plot.

When Kira woke up, she was very disoriented, she couldn't remember what had happened, and what she did remember didn't make any sense at all. When she managed to focus, she found herself lying on a hard bed in one of the medical cabins. After a minute of trying to remember, nothing was growing any clearer. Images began to appear in her mind: fire, spiders, and most importantly, Conner. And in that instant, it all came back to her.

She had been on the way back to the bridge, when she had been ambushed. The odds had been against her, but she had managed to take out the two spiders. Then the brunette haired woman came forward. In the beginning she thought that she might be able to beat her, but it quickly became apparent that Kira was no match for this woman. The way she fought looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn't tell if she knew the woman, because she was wearing a mask. The only chance that Kira had was to morph. Just as she was drawing breath for her ptera-scream, the woman kicked her in the stomach, taking away her chance to morph. Then she felt the claws of the two spiders holding her. She vainly insulted the woman who seemed to ignore most of it. The insults weren't working, so she spit on her. Although the slap had been expected, she hadn't anticipated the strength behind it. She couldn't make out what the woman had said, but out of the corner of her eye she saw a red blur and felt herself getting pushed to the side, and she knew that Conner had saved her. But when she looked up, all she saw was a flash of red light. Then fire consumed everything.

It took a while for it to hit her, but now Conner was gone. Before she could go any farther with the thought, the door quietly slid open to reveal a very looking Hayley and Tommy. "How are you feeling?" asked Hayley. Kira gave her a smile and said, "I'm okay." Hayley studied Kira for a second then said, "well, you look okay, but if Billy hadn't teleported you out of that inferno, there might have only been a pile of ashes left." 'Well,' Kira thought, 'at least that solves that mystery.'

"That's good," Kira said, "But what happened?" Hayley and Tommy exchanged a glance, then Tommy spoke up. "We think that the woman who kidnapped Conner, blew up the engines. There's nothing left of them. Right now we're on emergency power, which will only last another week before there's nothing left."

As Tommy's grim description of the situation ended, Kira felt herself growing pale. Suddenly Kira brightened. "Why don't we have Billy teleport us somewhere?" From the look that Tommy and Hayley shared, she already knew the answer…it wouldn't work. "Billy already tried it. Something about this area seems to keep us from teleporting." Hayley said. "So we're just drifting in space?" Kira asked. Hayley nodded, "that's pretty much the size of the situation."

Kira started to get up, but Tommy gently held her down. "You shouldn't get up yet," he said. "I feel fine," Kira insisted, "and besides, my being here is wasting energy that could be used elsewhere." Tommy reluctantly let Kira up, and helped her to her feet. Kira balanced unsteadily for a moment, then with fresh determination began to walk out of the small medical cabin. With each step, Kira grew steadier, until she was walking without a problem.

With Tommy and Hayley navigating, she found everyone sitting in the conference room, apparently attempting to decipher their next course of action. Everyone acknowledges Kira's entrance, then continued their discussion.

"It doesn't make any sense though," Andros was saying, "if the engines were destroyed, then how come there's no sign of external damage?" "The blast was probably designed to take out only the engines," Cam said. "No matter how focused the blast was, there would have to be some sign of damage on the hull." Andros argued.

Kira scratched her head thoughtfully. "Are we sure that there's nothing left of the engines?" she asked. "Yes," Andros said, "the pictures we're getting are showing that there's nothing there anymore." "Can I have a look?" she asked. "DECA," Andros said to the red eye hanging on the roof of the conference room, "show me the engine room again." Immediately the hologram of the engine room appeared in the middle of the table. Kira studied the hologram intently. Although she wasn't much of a mechanic, even she could see that the twisted lumps of metal wouldn't power anything. There was something odd about the holographed room, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

As the hologram disappeared, everyone sat in silence, trying to think of ways to resolve the situation. After a while, Tommy cleared his throat. "We're really not accomplishing anything right now," he said, "I think we're too tired and wound up to think clearly. So let's take a break for a couple of hours, then we'll come back and try to tackle this problem again." Everyone nodded in agreement and started to leave the conference room for their own quarters aboard ship.

As soon as Kira reached her own room she quickly laid down. She knew that at most it was a futile effort, having just woken up only an hour ago. It took her ten minutes to realize that despite her exhausted state, she would be getting no sleep. Finally she got out of bed, grabbed her guitar, and left the room.

After a few minutes of wandering around, she found herself on the observation deck. She took a seat and started to strum her guitar. With the image of Trent firmly embedded in her memory, she set about trying to write a song. At times like these, with relative peace and quiet, coupled with the inspiration of Trent's face, music would seem to write itself. But no matter how much she tried, nothing was coming out. But no matter how much she tried, nothing was coming out.

After a while she gave up and started to absentmindedly pluck the strings of her guitar as she let her mind wander. Without any conscious effort, the face of Trent slowly began to fade from her mind. It took her a while, but she finally realized the face that she was seeing was the face of Conner McKnight. Oddly enough, a song started to come to her, and fingers began to play a familiar tune, but she couldn't put her finger on the words or the title.

After a while she gave up and set her guitar down and began to massage her eyes. It was no use; she was trying to hard to forget the words that Conner had spoken earlier. _"I constantly have to keep my guard up because I'm afraid that if I don't, I could ruin my relationship with the one person I care for most,"_ he had said.

Suddenly Kira felt a tingle run down her spine, she was being watched. Cautiously, Kira looked around, then relaxed as she spotted the red eye of DECA observing her. Then she furrowed her brow and appeared on the verge of a revelation, but gave up and tried to shrug it off.

Another presence made itself known as Tori cleared her throat. Gasping in surprise, Kira had been so engrossed in her thoughts that she hadn't heard Tori's entrance. "Sorry," Tori said, "I didn't mean to bother you." Kira assured Tori with a smile then said, "it's alright, I just couldn't get to sleep." Tori nodded in understanding as she took a seat next to Kira. "I'm having some trouble myself," she said. "This mission is turning into far more than I bargained for."

Tori began a deep breath as she continued on to the focus of the conversation. "Kira?" she asked tentatively, "Do you want to talk about what happened with Conner?" Kira winced and saw immediately that she wasn't just talking about his kidnapping. 'Am I that obvious?' she asked herself. "How did you know?" she asked Tori. She regarded Kira carefully before responding, "I can tell by the look in your eyes. Because I once saw the same look before." Kira furrowed her brow and then asked, "what do you mean?"

Tori sighed, then looked around, as if checking for anyone that might be listening, then leaned closer to Kira and said in a low voice, "Blake and I broke up." "What?!" Kira exclaimed. As the shout continued to echo across space, Tori threw her a glance that made her smile sheepishly. "Sorry," she said quietly, "what happened?"

Tori considered whether or not to tell her younger friend, the circumstances of her break-up with Blake. After a while she decided to tell Kira. 'Who knows,' she thought, 'it might help her decipher her feeling for Conner.' A smile grace Tori's face as she began to remember the circumstances of their break-up. "About three months ago, Blake met a girl during one of his races. Melissa raced for Factory Blue Women's Division. At first Blake resisted the several passes that she had made. Then they began spending time together after races or big events, just talking. One day Blake came to Ninja Ops with the same look in his eyes. Immediately he told me of Melissa, and I could tell that he was feeling guilty about even having any kind of thoughts about anyone else but me."

Tori's smile began to fade as she continued her narrative. "At first, I have to admit, I felt kind of upset at the idea of him liking anyone else. Then I looked closely into his eyes, and I saw how this was tearing him apart. I stood there for quite a while, feeling that I was losing my best friend." Her smile returned as she saw Kira leaning closely, obviously enthralled by her story. "Then it hit me," she continued, "I was more afraid of losing my best friend, then my boyfriend. As I had been mulling this over, Blake had been stuttering and rambling until I stopped him. 'Blake,' I said, 'we've been together for a long time, but people change. I guess we're not as compatible as I thought. I guess it's time for us to break up.'"

Kira sat for a moment, absorbing the story. "Wow, that must've been tough." Tori nodded in agreement. "Yeah," she said somberly, "it was." Then Tori began to giggle. "How do we get the bad luck in love?" Unable to keep herself from joining in, Kira said, "I mean, what is it about women that are associated with rangers?" Tori nodded in agreement. "I know what you mean, probably the most successful relationship is the friendship between Andros and DECA." Suddenly Kira stopped laughing. There it was, the thing that had been bothering her, DECA. Then the light clicked on. Leaning closely to Tori, Kira whispered. "Get everyone together, I know what's going on, and I think we've spent enough time drifting through space."


	3. Chapter III

**Voyage: Part II, Chapter III**

Disclaimer: If you think I own power rangers, you should be locked up for your stupidity.

Within a few minutes, nearly everyone had arrived on the observation deck. As the call had gone out Kira had been pacing nervously as she pondered the reaction, to her soon to be made observation. Just as the last person arrived, Kira quickly said, "everyone, cover your ears." Without further warning, she let loose her ptera-scream, directing it at the red eye of DECA. In a matter of moments, DECA's audio and visual sensors exploded.

Andros threw Tommy a confused look, and received a shrug in return. Tommy knew that she would never so something like that without a good explanation, so he waited for her to begin her reasoning. Kira waited patiently until she was sure that everyone had recovered and then began. "I'm sorry that I had to do that, but I think I found the root of the problem, DECA." Most of the gathered rangers appeared shocked at Kira's large jump in logic.

Andros was the first to recover. "How did you jump to that conclusion?" he asked. "Is it as large a jump as you think?" she shot back. Seeing Andros' negative reaction, Kira tried to reason with him. When I was ambushed, DECA didn't alert anybody. I men, if it hadn't been for Conner…" she stopped short as a single tear fell down her cheek.

Cam chose then to speak up. "I think she's right Andros. There's something wrong with DECA." He looked to Hayley, Billy, and Trini in turn. "I'm sure you've all noticed this too. There are just way too many subsystems for DECA to have. There's even some programming that is completely inaccessible.

Billy nodded, "I agree, there is definitely something wrong." He then looked at Hayley. "So what did you find Hayley?" Andros turned to Hayley in surprise. 'So that's where she went.' he thought. "When I began hacking into DECA, I didn't know what to look for. I spent hours without getting anywhere. Then just before this impromptu meeting was called, I had an idea. I had been looking for programming that had been initiated recently. Then I began a search through DECA's archives as to when these programs had been loaded. What I found really surprised me. According to the logs, this corruption was put in during the original DECA's construction."

Andros knew what that meant, but he wanted to clarify anyway. "What does that mean?" She looked at him solemnly. "What that means, Andros, is that DECA is a virus." He couldn't believe what he had just heard. DECA has been the closest thing to a friend he had had since leaving active duty. "That means," Hayley continued, "that even is we reset DECA, the corruption would still be there."

He wanted so badly to believe that they were wrong, that DECA wasn't the problem, but he knew that she was. "We have to destroy DECA's consciousness," he said quietly. "The only way to get there is through the simulation deck. Come on."

As they entered the lift to the simulation deck, DECA made her presence known. "Andros, is there something wrong?" He wanted to tell her right there and then but stopped himself. "No DECA, we're just going to do some training on the simulation deck."

When the doors slid open, he knew that she had caught his lie. Arrayed before them lay at least thirty Quantatrons. Taking the leadership role once again, Tommy led the charge right into the middle of the Quantatron formation. After a while, Tommy realized that despite the effort that him and the rangers were putting forth the Quantatrons were not backing down. 'We aren't getting anywhere,' he thought. "Guys," he yelled, "it's time to take it up a notch."

Both Andros and Kira nodded, since they were the only other ones with active morphers. "Let's Rocket!" Andros called out, moments later the Red Astro Ranger began to weave his way through the foray. "Dino Thunder, Power Up, Ha!" he and Kira called. Soon the yellow and black Dino Rangers joined Andros and the others into the chaos.

Slowly, the tide began to turn as the rangers managed to push back the Quantatrons. When they appeared to have beaten all of them, thirty more appeared. Again the battle was joined.

"Andros," Tommy yelled above the confusion, "you go ahead. You're the only one who knows where she is." Andros blocked a kick, then nodded. Taking out his spiral saber, he began hacking his way through the seemingly endless waves of Quantatrons. As he grew closer, the Quantatrons began to disappear, only to be replaced by the various monsters he had fought.

Not letting them deter him, he continued to push through. Just as he was about to reach the door, Psycho Red appeared in front of him. "I don't have time for this," he said. "Battlizer, Activate!" With his Battlizer he made quick work of Psycho Red, then powered down to his normal ranger form. Expecting anything, Andros charged into the room, then stopped short. DECA's consciousness was a sphere floating between two horizontal blocks. DECA had chosen her last line of defense very carefully, for blocking his path stood the one thing that he had not expected, Ashley.

Outside the room, the Quantatrons began to change their forms. Just as Cam was halfway through a punch, he stopped himself short, at the person that he'd been about to hit. "Dad?" he asked. Around the room, various names could be heard, as the rangers were confronted with various individuals from their pasts. Among the most prominent was Tommy's exclamation of "Kim?" Immediately the fighting halted, and confused conversations began to spring up.

"Andros?" she asked. Slowly a smile began to blossom on her face as she ran forward and enfolded him in a hug. "Ashley?" he asked, "what are you doing here?" She looked at him, and then allowed her hands to slide into his gloved ones. A clanking could be heard as his spiral saber fell to the deck. "I'm here to stop you from making a huge mistake," she said. "Andros, I'm sorry for what I did. I know it was stupid. Please take me back." He gently caressed her face, as she leaned into his palm.

Inwardly smiling, she could see his resolve weakening; it was time to start pushing. "Come on Andros, unmorph, then we can go back to the way it used to be. We can be in love again," she said hopefully. "Ashley, I love you, I need you, but not like this." Suddenly he sprang forward and grabbed his spiral saber. Inside his helmet, a single tear made its way down his cheek. "Sorry DECA, sorry Ashley," and with one swipe of his spiral saber, it was over.

Tommy had unmorphed, and had been kissing Kimberly passionately. Suddenly she jerked away. He reached for her again, and just as he was about to grab her hand, she faded away into nothing. Banging his fist on the wall, Tommy cursed his luck. He had been so close to having her. Of course, the rational side of his mind knew that she had been nothing but a carefully constructed simulation, but his emotional side was mourning the loss and emptiness he felt inside his heart.

He saw Andros emerge from the room wearing, what he had to assume, a similar expression of his own. They both looked at each other, a tired smile appearing on their faces. "Love hurts, huh." he said. Andros nodded then began the trip to the bridge. "Everything should still work without her," he said nodding his head to the now vacant room.

After seeing that the engine was indeed there everyone gathered in the bridge. "Good job everyone, but I think that this time we need a real break." Everyone tiredly laughed. Let's meet back on here in four hours. I'll keep watch until then." Jason stepped forward, "no, get some rest bro. You need it more than me. I'll keep watch." Too tired to argue he just nodded.

Once again, the rangers separated to their own quarters. This time when Kira got to hers, she knew that she wouldn't be having any problems falling asleep this time. Just as she was dozing off, that song came to mind. And just as she had the title of the song, she drifted off to sleep, dreaming of a familiar brown haired boy, and all the times they could have been together.


End file.
